Something needs to be done about Vladimir Putin and soon.
The president of Russia reminds me of a little child who swears he didn’t hit the baseball that broke the ?window, even though he is holding the bat and has a history of breaking windows.
With the recent crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, U.S. officials plan to meet with other nations to discuss ways to implement more sanctions on Russia. ?Supposedly these will be more effective than all the other sanctions we’ve put into place.
Isn’t it clear that criticism, pounding our fists on the table, doesn’t work?
As long as Russia has the support of China, we can do very little to affect Russia’s economy. And Putin doesn’t strike me as a person who will forego his plans if the wallets of Russian citizens are hurt.
Obama couldn’t have done much more than implement sanctions when Russia invaded Ukraine.
A military invasion would have been impossible, since he wouldn’t risk a large scale war because of a piece of comparatively small land. But the lack of repercussions from the takeover of Crimea has convinced Putin he won’t be accountable on an international level.
Russia has been pushing the limit on its international actions, and we haven’t been pushing back.
Obviously, officials haven’t explicitly connected the missile that knocked the plane down to Russia.
But as Secretary of State John Kerry said, “There’s a lot to believe that Russia is ?responsible.”
Would any reasonable person believe Russia was not involved?
It’s not some covert plot to make Russia look bad on the international stage. Russia already looks bad, and, frankly, Russia doesn’t really care.
But that’s the problem. Russia doesn’t care how it’s viewed. If no one makes Putin accountable, what’s to stop him from blowing up seven, 15, 100 more planes? And what happens when the United States and other countries lose enough citizens and are forced to step beyond sanctions?
I would rather not get to that point.
I don’t know what the next step would be.
But Putin’s actions have shown that sanctions do not deter him from doing what he wants.
It’s foolish to believe they will have any significant impact now that he’s stepped even further across the line.
